The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for correcting weather data.
During acquisition of weather data by means of a ground-based weather radar for example for weather observation in the vicinity of airports, ground echoes, that is to say echoes from obstacles such as buildings, hills/mountains, trees etc. are also recorded by the weather radar in addition to weather echoes, that is to say echoes from clouds and precipitation. Two approaches are known for filtering out the ground echoes, also denoted as clutter, from the intensity distribution of the echoes. On the one hand, a clutter map in which an intensity distribution is stored only with ground echoes and without weather echoes and which has been recorded under suitable weather conditions can be subtracted from the intensity distribution of a measurement corrupted by clutter. On the other hand, those areas which are sufficiently corrupted by clutter can be determined by comparing the measured values with values of the clutter map and can be replaced by interpolation or extrapolation from areas which are not sufficiently corrupted by clutter.
Both in the case of subtraction and that of interpolation or extrapolation, diverse thresholds and complex algorithms are to be used which additionally correct only the intensity of the echo. No suitable correction options are known for the weather data of radial speed, spectral width and differential reflectivity.